Dean J. Brian Atwood and Ambassador Andrew Natsios shared their experiences as USAID administrators and agreed that lasting progress in the fight against global poverty will not be realized until it becomes central to our foreign policy efforts. They argued that the best way to reduce poverty is to establish stable economic growth in developing regions, and that the private sector has a unique opportunity to cultivate such growth.

Dean Atwood, head of the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, maintained that U.S. foreign assistance should focus on creating employment opportunities in developing nations, which will lead to those countries’ ability to generate wealth and increase stability. He urged businesses leaders to participate in accelerating the economic growth of developing countries.

Ambassador Natsios described U.S. policies that undermine our development objectives and must be reformed. For example, the United States gave $120 million in aid to Bangladesh and Cambodia in 2006 yet collected $853 million in import duties from them the same year. He stressed that the U.S. government must take a leadership role in global development by establishing a policy environment that will allow private sector growth in poor countries.

Both Dean Atwood and Ambassador Natsios championed the value of the public and private sectors working collaboratively to reduce global poverty.